Hey everyone, I am going to be doing an experiment. I have 2 lakes i will be attempting to dial in and consistently catch lake trout. I chose these two particular lakes because this time of year after ice out i know where the lakers are and i know how to catch them. I just haven't attempted to catch them on a fly. I honestly don't really know why it has taken me this long to try this. i really want to get some 10 plus pounders in on a fly. I will be doing all catch and release, that is all i ever do and these fish it is especially important. I will post up on this thread what i learn and i will definitely be taking video. I video everything anymore and this will be no exception. If anyone has experience fly fishing lakers lets put up what we know on this thread these are really an awesome, and very large fish and i am disappointed in the information i find doing internet searches. Lets open it up. I personally will really appreciate any patterns or tips or anything anyone has for me and i will thoroughly test out everything i can. I have been tying smolt and kokanee patterns and i will also be throwing larger nymphs. If the situation is right a mouse fly will be going on as i have personally seen mice in the belly of a lake trout before my catch and release days. Anyway hope a few of you are as interested in this as i am.

I have fished for them during an iceout period. Lake Trout come into the shallows to feed. I would concentrate on inlet areas since they are conveyor belts of food. I will swing Woolly Buggers though the current created from the incoming stream.

Yeah ice out has generally been productive for me as well, jigging or trolling that is. One of the lakes I'm talking about is somewhat unique in that there are not any significant inlet streams the outlet is moderately sized probably 500-750 CFSat peak. It is a good sized lake 3 or 4 miles long and 1.5-2 wide and is fed by groundwater and small inlet streams coming in off of snowfields. It is fairly easy to find the fish in that lake though there is one corner of it that provides excellent structure with islands and large boulders and lots of schooling Kokanee. The second lake I'm talking about boast numerous major inlet streams the problem is that cant fish within 1/4 mile of any inlet stream. This is a rule put in place to protect spawning rainbows in may. It also has a very large lake trout population, ice fishing it is not uncommon to catch 10-20 a day consistently. 99 percent of these fish are around one pound though. I want to find the parents of those fish. This lake is 30 miles long and 1-3 miles wide and gets close to 700 feet deep in some spots. I know several areas on it where the salmon smolt pass by the shallows on there way to eventually the ocean and this is where I will be fishing.

Long before I had a pocket camera and when we used film in our SLR's I used to catch a few. I did this in Seneca Lake NY. The trick was to go fish on a day when the prevailing wind had been from the south for at least the last 24 hours.

What this did was to push all the surface matter to the north shore of the lake. Surface matter includes but was not limited to: dead minnows, dying minnows, bugs, zoo-plankton, and numerous things I couldn't identify........... The locals there called the wind effect a 'food boom', taken from the concept of a log or fuel spill boom that spans an area. The floating material driven by the wind became a very noticeable 'boom' as it was near, and then driven to shore.

You fished in about 4 - 6 foot of water and simply left the streamer sink so it lay on the bottom. Then every so often gave it the slightest twitch. If there was a Lake Trout near and looking it resulted in a bottom hugging bull strong run for deeper waters....

Not sure which lakes you're considering but wind can be helpful. I'll be watching for your posts,

Sounds a really fun thing. The only place I have ever seen it done is during part of the Fall on the North Shore of Lake Superior, they come in really shallow and get caugt when people are targeting Loopers and Steelhead. They close the season on tem at that time so it is a only by accident and an immediate release thing, but other than that I have not really seen it done.

Hidden will be my primary lake, it is clear and holds a good population of large fish. More importantly I have caught the large fish there and I have a good starting point. Kenai will be my second lake until the ice goes out on Juneau. It's not clear and that scares people from it. I think if I can find the right spot where they are concentrated enough the 6 or 8 feet of visibility is all you need. I have caught fish trolling in kenai. A few lakers but usually a fat rainbow, I'll take that any day. The ice is close on hidden a few more days is all we need. Wednesday is the start day Im planning on.

They close the season on tem at that time so it is a only by accident and an immediate release thing, but other than that I have not really seen it done.

The Laker's are fall spawner's and they come in where there is a medium cobble bottom near shore for spawning. That's probably why the season is closed at that time. They (like brown & brook trout) are particularly vulnerable in the fall. However, if a fly fisherman were not targeting them on visible beds I think C & R with out removing the fish from water for hero shots wouldn't harm their population at all.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, if fishing were allowed, I believe there should be a baseline leader strength requirement also to eliminate the guys who want to 'fight' a fish for 20 minutes on light tackle too. I always thought that New York was messed up because they allow fishing for lake Run Browns during fall when they are on the spawning mission. No problems with the fishing but the hero shots and light tippets are counter productive to say the least.

Proper care of the fish is always important. i suspect the reason for them taking the safe route and closing it off is because of how slow at reproducing lakers supposedly are. I have seen studies that say kenai peninsula lakers may spawn annually though. Either way it takes them a number of years before they are capable of spawning in the first place. I do believe they are one of the more delicate populations of char and you won't be seeing me take this fish out of the water.